Tag Archives: Christmas

Vancouver Christmas Market

We took a trip up to Vancouver at the end of November. They had set up their Christmas market near where we were staying and our hotel rate included tickets. It was only open at peak times while we were there but I think the hours were expanding not long after our visit. These markets are always interesting to walk around but they rarely have anything that I would actually want to buy – other than food and booze! In this case, we were heading out to dinner with friends afterwards so we even skipped that side of things. They are always a colorful and popular place so you can just enjoy watching everyone enjoying themselves and occasionally wonder at some of the strange things people will buy!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

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I posted previously about the Christmas lights at Butchart Gardens but I separately kept the theme of the Twelve Days of Christmas for its own post. There is a route that you follow through the gardens to see the illuminations and along that route are a series of scenes for the twelve days. The first one you come to is clearly the partridge in a pear tree and you go from there.

I share each of the shots in turn to illustrate what they have. Some are pretty straightforward. Six geese a’laying is not obscure. The Four Calling Birds had a few people puzzle until they realized that they had cellphones. I found the French Hens pretty amusing. The leaping lords were frogs behind a wall and they came up in a varying pattern. Getting a shot with most of them in required some patience. The pipers were just a bit creepy for me.

When you finish walking around the gardens, you think something is wrong. You are back at the start and you haven’t seen twelve drummers drumming. The reason for that is that they are on the arches over the road that exits the gardens from the parking lot. If you aren’t paying attention, you could easily miss them. We had seen this previously but I had forgotten and it was a little while before I remembered and looked off from the area near the gift shop and saw them. The arms of the drummers do move but the photos won’t tell that tale.

Butchart Gardens Christmas Lights 2021

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Our visit to Victoria over the Thanksgiving holiday coincided with the first nights of the Christmas lights at Butchart Gardens. Pre-booking a time was necessary with COVID precautions in effect but we had planned ahead so that was taken care of. We actually got there earlier in the afternoon to have a wander around while there was still some light before taking a full walk around again when the lights were at their most effective.

There will be a separate post on the Christmas theme to the lights. For this post, I am going to share some shots of the general lighting of the gardens. We were there two years ago and they don’t change much between each year. I think there is a small change each year and that is fine with me because it really looks fantastic. Conveying the impression of the lighting in photos is tricky because the way the eye sees things in the dark is different to the camera with the darks being too dark or the lights blowing out.

However, I hope these shots give some idea of the way it looked. On our previous visit, I had been blown away by the use of green lasers to illuminate the undersides of the trees creating a star-like effect under the foliage. That was there again and looked just as good. I did think to look backwards as we walked around – it is easy to get fixated on what is ahead of you – and that area looked great from a distance too. This time there was an area with some red lasers and, while on a smaller scale, it looked very effective too.

Butchart Gardens is worth a visit at any time of year but, if you get to go for the Christmas lights, do take the opportunity. It is a lovely display and it is very tastefully done. There are plenty of gaudy light displays and, while this one is not understated, it certainly is still tasteful.

Asia Pacific 757 Freighter Helping UPS

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Looking for something unusual keeps things interesting when you have been shooting the same stuff for a while while not able to go anywhere. I had seen a couple of movements in recent months of Asia Pacific Airlines and their Boeing 757s. However, I had never been in a position to catch one. Christmas Eve I was off work and one was due in to Boeing Field. It was on their own flight number but I had a suspicion that they were supporting UPS.

Sure enough, when the jet landed, it taxied up to a spot on the UPS ramp and started unloading. UPS had been running a large amount of movements through Seattle that day and the preceding days so I guess the Christmas rush meant it was necessary to charter in additional capacity to deal with the demand. An interesting looking plane and nice to see something different for a change.

Butchart Gardens Christmas Lights

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While we got to Butchart Gardens before the sun set as seen in this post, the purpose of the visit was to see the illuminations. I had been there before during the day and knew it was a pretty garden but I didn’t know what to expect with the illuminations. I thought it might be pretty but was not expecting it to be so dramatic. The first are had some lovely lights within the trees with animated icicles. We then followed a route around the gardens to cover all of the areas. These areas also included displays themed around the twelve days of Christmas.

One area that really blew me away was a section under tree cover where they had lasers mounted on the tree trunks that scattered their light into the canopy above. The effect was magical and I spent a long time looking up at it as well as trying to get a decent shot of it. On one, the lens wasn’t originally zoomed out and so it drifted a little in zoom. The result was rather good but not what was needed. I like it but it will stay out of public sight.

Walking down in to the valley below the main house, the lighting was absolutely amazing. The density of light installations and the use of color was really impressive. The use of trees and plants to catch the light was great as was the use of some of the surrounding rock. They also had some streams of blue lights to give the effect of flowing water.

We had arrived at the gardens before the sun went down and we got in very quickly. There was no traffic. As a result, we had seen the whole display after dark relatively early in the evening. We were able to head back to town and, as we started to drive out, the traffic coming in was awful. We were sailing out but the cars were backed up the hill. I imagine it would take a long time to get in. I think our timing worked well.

Some Seasonal Snow

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Christmas morning in Kirkland had us waking up to some snow. It had started to snow a little on Christmas Eve but plenty more had dropped overnight. This was not snow that was going to last long. It was rather heavy and damp and, having built up on the branches of the trees, it was pretty precarious. When some of it slipped off, it would take whatever was below it too resulting in some significant dumps on the ground below or you if you were unlucky. Paying attention to what was above you was a good idea.

I went out first thing. Since it was Christmas morning, not much traffic had been out so the roads were reasonably untouched. The light from the street lamps was still a factor in some places. I wandered around the neighborhood checking out the view before it all went away. The temperatures were not too low so I didn’t have to wrap up much and I knew things would soon melt. However, it was a scenic place to be for a while and added a certain atmosphere to Christmas Day.